Why International Women’s Day 2026 Demands Give to Gain, and Why Motherhood & Modern Work Must Be Part of the Conversation

03 / Mar / 2026

More FTSE 350 CEOs Are Named Andrew or John. Than Are Women. On International Women’s Day 2026, we’re still contending with a stat that would be funny if it wasn’t so revealing. Across the FTSE 350, more CEOs are named Andrew or John than are women. It’s a grim reality. Women aren’t short […]

Nadia Knight

More FTSE 350 CEOs Are Named Andrew or John.

Than Are Women.

International Women's Day | Executive Heads Insights

On International Women’s Day 2026, we’re still contending with a stat that would be funny if it wasn’t so revealing. Across the FTSE 350, more CEOs are named Andrew or John than are women.

It’s a grim reality. Women aren’t short on talent, ambition, or capability, the system simply isn’t designed for them to rise at the same rate.

Progress at the Edges, Stagnation at the Top

The UK has seen progress. Women now make up a substantial proportion of board seats and leadership roles. But the CEO seat, the one with the highest level of power, remains the most resistant to change.

Only 21 women run FTSE 350 companies.
This number has barely moved in nearly a decade.

So yes, representation has improved. But influence? Authority? Decision‑making power? Those are still locked in a very old pattern.

The Motherhood Penalty: The Unspoken CEO Filter

If we’re honest, the single biggest structural cliff edge for women isn’t ambition or capability.

It’s motherhood.

We know that UK mothers experience a dramatic drop in earnings in the years after having their first child, along with stalled career progression and reduced opportunities.

Not because they become less committed. Not because their performance declines.

But because our systems, expectations, and leadership models were built on the assumption that leaders don’t have caregiving responsibilities. Or if they do, someone else absorbs the impact.

Motherhood shouldn’t mark the beginning of a career slowdown.
Yet for many women, that’s exactly what happens. Not due to lack of ambition, but because the path to leadership is still designed around a full‑time, always‑on, physically‑present model that hasn’t evolved with modern life.

Then There’s the Push Back to the Office

If motherhood is the structural barrier, the forced “return to office” is the accelerant.

Here’s what the data makes clear, without drowning you in numbers:

Mothers are the group least likely to be able to comply with full‑time office mandates. Only about a third say they could do it.
These mandates risk becoming indirectly discriminatory, because women still shoulder most childcare responsibilities.

But the most telling number is this:
One in ten working mothers are forced to leave their jobs entirely because childcare is simply too expensive or unavailable.

The subtext is obvious. “If you can’t be here five days a week, you can’t lead.”

Here’s the question leaders should sit with:

Have you ever had a water‑cooler moment so commercially essential that it justifies excluding mothers from career‑defining opportunities?

We all know the answer.

Hybrid and flexible work aren’t soft perks. They’re structural enablers of women’s progression. When organisations strip them away, parents (especially mothers) pay for it first.

Give to Gain: What Leadership Actually Requires Today

This year’s International Women’s Day theme “Give to Gain” is exactly what UK businesses need to embrace.

Because when leaders give opportunity, flexibility, sponsorship, and pathways into real power, organisations gain performance, innovation, diversity of thought, resilience, and stronger internal succession.

Here’s what “giving” really means in 2026:

Give opportunity – Stop funnelling women (especially mothers) into support roles. Put them into P&L, operations, transformation. The pathways that lead to CEO.

Give sponsorship – Not quiet mentoring. Active advocacy. Door‑opening. Name‑pushing.

Give flexibility without penalty – Hybrid work isn’t the enemy of culture. Rigid attendance is the enemy of inclusion.

Give visibility and stretch roles – Don’t assume mothers don’t want stretch. Ask them. Offer it. Support them.

Give accountability – Measure gender outcomes the way you measure financial ones. With intention and consequence.

The Bigger Truth this International Women’s Day

When FTSE 350 companies have more CEOs named Andrew or John than women, the issue isn’t talent. It’s design, and design can be redesigned.

The UK has already proven it can shift norms, improve representation, and modernise leadership structures. Now it needs to tackle the real blockers: motherhood penalties, outdated expectations of presence, and leadership models built for a world that no longer exists.

Give to Gain isn’t just an International Women’s Day theme.

It a simple commitment:
We don’t lose brilliant women because the system can’t imagine them at the top.

Nadia Knight is an Executive Search Consultant at Executive Heads, with over 20 years of recruitment experience.

See all Vlogs

Why International Women’s Day 2026 Demands Give to Gain, and Why Motherhood & Modern Work Must Be Part of the Conversation

Progress at the Edges, Stagnation at the Top

The Motherhood Penalty: The Unspoken CEO Filter

Then There’s the Push Back to the Office

Give to Gain: What Leadership Actually Requires Today

The Bigger Truth this International Women’s Day

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